Day 15 : Seven Sacred Pools, Pipiwai Trail, Red Sands Beach, Hamoa Beach, Koki Beach

We woke up this morning a little after 8, with about 3 hours of sleep.  We made our oatmeal, had more coffee than normal, and headed out to the park to do the Seven Sacred Pools and the Pipiwai Trail.  We decided to do the trail first.

The hike is a little over 4 miles out and back and it is definitely ranked up in our top three of most amazing and beautiful things we've ever seen.  We started the trail at the top of the Seven Sacred Pools, and climbed up into the mountains.  The trail was so green and lush, and there were overlooks all over the place where you could see mini waterfalls cascading into great pools.

After numerous pools / mini waterfalls, the trail turns into a magnificent huge bamboo forest.

From there, the trail opens back up and you cross through a few streams and when you're almost to the top of the trail, you can look up and see three sepearate large falls cascading down the steep cliff of the mountain.  The view is breath-taking...I think I said "oh  my gosh...how cooool" about 1000 times.

The trail ends at the bottom of of one of the waterfalls with a small pool.  This waterfall was one of the most magnificant we've ever seen.  I had to hold onto the rocks to look all the way up to see the top of the waterfall. 

 

We sat up there, at our lunch, enjoyed the scenary for a bit before heading back down.

From there, we went into the Seven Sacred Pools which are tiered pools (there's actually more than seven) that go from the bottom of the trail all the way out into the ocean.  We took a dip in one of the pools (brrrr...), warmed up by sitting out on one of the rokcs, and then headed to see the beautiful beaches of Maui.

Chris's favorite beach was Koki Beach.

Mine was Red Sands Beach (which you had to hike through a cemetary and some back looking trails to even GET to, and then hike down the mountain TO the actual beach!)

And a hugely popular one that is also beautiful  was Hamoa Beach.

All three were stunning in their own rights.  Waaaay different than our Clearwater Beaches!!

Running on empty, we headed back to our Inn.  The previous night's ... misadventures ... all came rushing back when we pulled into the driveway.  The resident girl that lives on the premises came out to talk about it all with us, and I had a few messages from the owner on my voicemail as well. 

Apparently, an ex-coworker had come into our room, thinking it was empty, to watch TV.  They filed a police report against her, and told us they could move us rooms if we felt better, and they refunded us our previous nights stay.  We were entirely too tired to try to find another place to stay (and our place was actually pretty nice by Hana standards), and we both felt pretty comfortable staying again, so we agreed that was fair and just stayed in the same room.  We made dinner and fell asleep shortly before 9.